Open Arms - Part 1
by sunderlandprincess
Summary: Val is having trouble in school , Caitie is having trouble with drugs, and there's some J/C romance coming up in this one..plus the existing Val/Tyler stuff ;) Please Read!
1. Open Arms

# Open Arms – Part 1-

Well, this is my latest fic—and it stars Caitie and Jaime and possibly a little match up/romance with them, plus Tyler and Val…and it does happen to be about high school drugs, because I always want to hit an important point because I don't think people should be messing their lives up this early (or not at all, preferably)…so…on that note. I don't own the characters…and this (as all my fics will probably be) follows from the last ones ("Romeo and Juliet", "Trust") 

Val Lanier shifted the weight of her backpack on her shoulder, hoping that the notebook that was poking her would move to a more comfortable position for her. The February sunshine, cool but at the same time soothing, settled over her and Tyler as they walked the short way from school to the EMS station. They fell into step shoulder to shoulder as Tyler told her. "I wouldn't worry too much. Val, since when have you failed a test?"

She gave him a weak smile. "Well, never, but I've come pretty close. But that's not the point. This is chemistry!" 

"So?" He was trying to make her feel more comfortable about the test she had taken last period, on which she had left many blank…or so she said. Val tended to over exaggerate things when she was stressed.

"Tyler, we're EMTs…all these bonds and different formulas…we should know these. Half of them are in meds we give daily and I can hardly remember them for this tiny test!" She cried, exasperated with herself. 

He laughed so hard that Val had to smack him lightly on the shoulder to get him to look at her. "What is it?" She pleaded, although he continued to laugh.

"I…I…" Slowly, he brought himself under control, although he had to wipe the tears away from his eyes to clear them up. "I remember you saying the exact same thing after you took the EMT test… 'ooh, I failed, I failed!'" He imitated, forcing Val to have to smack him again.

"It's not all that funny." She muttered as they meandered into the station, the warmth and business of the place enveloping them as usual. 

Their shoes, damp from the drying ground since the last of the tiny blasts of snow, squeaked on the linoleum and they wandered into the common room, where Hank and Jaime were sitting, Jaime deeply—well, not quite deeply—involved in his homework, and Hank sorting through computer files on the laptop on the desk. Faint chords of music played in the background from the radio, and Val immediately recognized the song as one of her favourites; _Back Here_, by BBMak.

"Hey," Jaime muttered unenthusiastically, not looking up from his literature book as Val hung up her coat and Tyler's on the rack so that Tyler could go tell Alex something. 

"Hey," She waved lightly to Hank and then turned around to face Jaime again. "What's wrong? You don't sound like you're enjoying yourself." _But then again_, she thought to herself, _he never sounds like he's enjoying himself_. 

Val leaned on the desk he was working on and waited for his answer. "I hate this," He answered. "How come when we read stuff for English, it's never _in_ English?"

She smiled. "I know. They love to do that to us. If it makes any difference, I didn't understand one bit of the reading." 

Jaime sat back in the chair and sighed, his features marred by confusion. "Half the time I don't understand the questions either." 

"Believe me," Hank put in. "We've all been there." 

Tyler came back into the room and touched Val lightly enough on the arm that she turned around with a start, although calmed down once she saw who it was. "Did you want something to drink?" He asked and headed for the refrigerator.

"Uh, yeah, sure. A soda's fine." She glanced up at the clock with apprehension. 3:30. Brooke should have been there by then, but she shrugged it off. Sometimes she walked a little slower. 

Tyler gave her a soda and she opened it with a _pop_, sitting down on the couch with Tyler trailing right behind her with a clipboard in his free hand. "Okay. Inventory." He raised his eyebrows and sighed. "Fun, fun."

"Here, I'll help." Val offered, but looked up quickly when the door slammed, hoping to see Brooke coming in from school. But instead, she saw Caitie walking in with a darker look than usual. For all Val could tell, she looked fairly normal—or as normal as Caitie got, but when she walked right past Jaime without a word, she knew that something was up.

"Hey, what's with you?" She asked in a friendly way.

"Nothing," Caitie muttered and quickly asked. "I just…I was wondering if you'd come outside for a sec." 

"Uh, yeah, sure. What's wrong?" 

The other girl didn't answer that question until they got outside in the crisp afternoon air. "It's Brianne. She's at it again. But this time it's worse. It's Ecstasy…and dumb stuff like that." Val saw a tear slide down her friend's face. "And she won't listen to me."

"Doesn't Jaime know?" She asked, surprised.

Caitie shook her head and wiped the tear. "He hasn't been spending as much time with us lately…I mean, we're not in the same science, English, math, or language class…just history. And then Brianne's not in that—even when she is…all here." 

"He should know. So should all of us. There must be something we can do." 

"No." She said firmly. "Just Jaime, if anyone at all. I don't want this to become a big thing." 

"But Caitie, it _is_ a big thing!" _I should know_. The thought popped up._ After having close to the same problem with Tyler, I really don't want something like that to happen again_.

"Please. Don't tell anyone. I want to be the one who tells Jaime…just please don't tell Tyler or Hank." 

"But, why?"

"Just, don't, okay?" Caitie was really pleading now so Val shut up.

"I promise. Hey, come inside and have a snack or something. I'm sure we must have something in that fridge you can eat." 

They both smiled at this one, weakly, but they smiled, and walked back in to the station, just as Brooke popped up from her hiding place in the bushes. She'd walked in about halfway through the conversation, and, not wanting them to see her interrupting them, hunkered down behind a bush. Boy, had she been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Val?" The sound of the teacher saying her name snapped her out of her short daydream in chemistry class. There was a paper being held out at her for her to take, so she just smiled quickly and took it, knowing it was the test they had taken two days before. Ever since her talk with Caitie she'd been so zoned out that she forgot her cheerleading cheer, forgot what time her date had been with Tyler, and put the files in the wrong place at the EMS station. 

She placed the test face down on the desk and willed in all her heart that despite the ones she knew she got wrong, she had done everything else perfectly and there was a proud **A** on the front. There was a hole at the pit of her stomach, because she knew that this had not been a good test. Even though she understood the material thoroughly, Mr. Olson had a way of making up questions on the tests that somehow did not appear in the reading or the lecture notes. She always studied forever for his tests, and ended up usually getting a good grade.

Val closed her eyes and turned the paper over as if it were a land mine that was going to explode if she moved it too quickly. Once the papers were all the way flipped, she burst open her eyes, only to find her heart dropping to her feet at the sight of a large, and evil looking **C-** that had a way in itself that made her feel bad. She'd blown it. Not that a **C-** was bad for some people, but Val Lanier did _not_ get them. And her parents thought that, too, which was the worst. Besides, she needed to get a good grade in science to go on to a good med school. 

"All right." Mr. Olson's voice penetrated her again. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Get ready to do a lab."

As the class slowly filed out of the room, the chemistry teacher gave her a disappointed look, and although he didn't say anything as he wasn't generally very comforting, she knew he was not happy with her performance. 

Val met Tyler halfway down the hallway since it was lunch time and he immediately asked. "Wasn't good, was it?"

She shook her head. "**C-**."

He jumped in quickly to try and comfort her. "That's not all that bad. Come on, at least _I_ know you're perfect." He clasped her hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 

"Humph. That's not enough for my parents. I'm going to be dead by tomorrow." She muttered.

"Don't worry…we still haven't gotten a call where a kid was dying because of a test grade."

Val smiled and wrapped her arm in his. "Not _yet_."

End of part one! Well, this is a little longer than the others but it's got a few more stories intertwined in it than the others. Hope you enjoyed it! 


	2. Default Chapter Title

# Open Arms – Part 2

More…hehe…gets a little diverse here 'cuz I'm using more characters than just Tyler and Val (although they're still my faves!) 

Brianne had a glazed look on her face as she and Caitie met under the bleacher's after school. Caitie had no idea how the other girl had remembered to meet her there, because she was obviously getting over being totally stoned and was still in a state in which she was not speaking all that well, just kind of sappily grinning. Her words slurred together and she laughed a lot, so much that it made Caitie wonder just how many drugs she'd been taking in. 

"You know, Brianne, I thought you were over this whole nearly dying thing." She said, leaning against the metal.

"Who told you?" The other girl swaggered like she was drunk but then sat down quite well, for if she had been drunk she would have probably fallen, and just laid her hands in her lap sloppily. 

"Okay, listen, will you? I'm going to tell Jaime." Caitie said, seriously, although she hadn't seen Jaime all day to tell him, which gave her the longest time to fret about how she was going to do it. Lately, she and Jaime had grown apart a little bit. Ever since the last problem with Brianne, when he had held her in the hospital and after school, like he loved her more than anything, she had been embarrassed to be near him, for some reason. Maybe it was because every time she saw him she wanted him more than anything else in the world—no, check that, universe. Or maybe it was because she was afraid her tongue would trip over the words coming out of her mouth and she would sound incredibly stupid. Or was it something else? She had no clue; sometimes she thought it would have been much easier not to bother with the whole guy/girl thing, but she couldn't help her natural impulses, however much she tried.

"Well, then, fine. Does it look like I…I really care?" She stuttered a little bit but seemed to understand what Caitie had been saying, which surprised her. This was all so confusing, as she knew nothing about drugs and what the real effects were and felt like, because, unlike some stereotype ridden people believed that she was on them. 

"All right, you know. Fine…I'll see you later." Caitie told her, frustrated, and walked off, her feet crunching on the cool gravel as she headed to the EMS station in search of Jaime. She couldn't quite remember if Val had said they had shifts that afternoon, or what, but she figured that was the best place to look, first. 

Brooke had only had half a day of school that day, so she came directly to the station at lunch time to work on some file organization and office cleaning. Alex's back was bothering him again, since they were having cold and damp weather, and he had asked her to help with the cleaning so the station looked spiffy as usual. Caitie's words from the other day rang in her mind, although she hadn't uttered a word about it to Tyler, Hank, or Jaime—not even told Val she knew. Her sister would probably disown her for 'spying' on them. Sometimes she could be sensitive about those things. 

By three thirty, the whole squad was there and working—Val doing papers with Tyler, Hank on the computer again, and Jaime checking out some old junk in boxes that were probably even older in the garage. Like she had the day before, Caitie burst in without saying a word except. "Jaime?" 

And Brooke answered it with another. "Garage." 

The older girl nodded weakly and went directly to the garage without hesitation—without even going to see Val or bothering to say much more._Not that she ever does, though,_ she thought, and shrugged, turning her attention back to her work.

Caitie walked hesitantly into the substantially cooler garage, larger than any of the other rooms but much more cluttered, especially with Jaime in there beside many open boxes, stuff scattered everywhere. His face showed frustration, as though he were looking for something that he was _not_ finding. "Uh, Jaime?" She said hesitantly, in a voice not her own.

He looked up, surprised, and then smiled. "Oh, hey, Caitie. Come to help me with this torture?" 

She smiled weakly and shook her head. "No, sorry, you're the super-squad member, remember. I came to talk to you about Brianne."

Jaime's face fell, as though he knew what she was going to say before she said it. "What's wrong?" 

"She's at it again." Her voice fell flat as she leaned on the side of the doorway, looking down on his seat on the floor surrounded by all of his medical stuff. 

"What, huffing? I thought she promised she'd never do that again." With that, he pulled himself to his feet and came to meet her in the doorway, Caitie noticing at that moment, she didn't know why, how close they were, how hot he looked, and how perfectly his lips formed words. Even though his expression was one of worry, his eyes held a spark to them that she had never seen in anyone she'd ever known.

"Uh, no. It's worse." Her mind snapped back into the real world—the one where Jaime wasn't madly in love with her…now _that_ was just a fantasy. "Ecstasy."

"She _what_?" He leaned over a little when he said this so that their faces were less than a foot away, although Caitie knew he wasn't thinking about what she was at just that moment. _And I shouldn't be!_ Her mind scolded her. _I came here to help Brianne, not stare at Jaime's handsome face, strong arms…or…stop it!_

__"It's so obvious…I even found some in her locker…right where she kept the stuff she was huffing. She's not making an effort to hide it and I'm afraid something worse is going to happen to her. I came to you because I don't know what to do." 

"I don't believe this!" He threw up his arms and then crossed them across his chest, sighing. "I thought she was over this…she sounded so sincere…" Jaime let his voice trail off.

"It's an addiction." She stated plainly.

"I know…" He seemed very preoccupied, but for a second their eyes met dead square, and it was so uncomfortable that Caitie wanted to immediately look away. But she couldn't. There was a glare in his eye, a sparkle, a shine that made it all so much more pleasing to look at and to know that he was looking in her eyes just the same way. What did he see in her? Could he see her inside—her soul? 

"Thanks for telling me. I know it wasn't quite that easy." He snapped her out of her daydream so that she didn't hear exactly what he had just said, so she had to ask.

"Huh?" And it sounded really stupid.

"I meant that I know it's not easy for you to confide in people and all that—I know you like to deal with things, well, your own way." 

She couldn't tell if that was a compliment or not. 

"Oh. Sorry. I'm not really in tune to everything today." She knew it was a lame excuse so quickly changed the tone and asked. "So, what are we going to do?" 

"I dunno." He shrugged. "Give me some time to think…talk to the squad…maybe they'll have some suggestio…" 

Before he could even finish the syllable Caitie cut him off. "No. No super-squad members…they already think we're messed up enough."

Val looked at her watch apprehensively. Exactly 3.5 minutes until class—chemistry. Just as she slammed her locker door shut, Jaime approached her in the hall. Despite the fact that they worked together and he was the other best friend of her best friend, she was surprised that he came up to her.

"Val, wait, can I talk to you?" He said, seeming worried.

"Make it quick, Waite. If I'm late, my grade will go into the negatives in chem.." She told him in a friendly way.

He smiled, seeming to forget for a second about what he came to talk to her about and joked. "Hey, at least you're grade can't get much more dead than that." 

She smiled back, but then asked. "What's up?" They ambled along the hallway; Val hugging her books up to her chest and Jaime carrying them idly in his right hand, leaned up against his side.

"It's Brianne." He started out slowly.

"I know. Caitie told me. She said she'd tell you, but I didn't know when…and I swore by my life I wouldn't utter a word." 

"Same here…although I had to talk to you. I mean, you're the one who knows her just as well as I do and that sometimes she likes to take things into her own hands…" 

Val finished the sentence for him. "…and it can get out of control. I know. But I don't know what to do."

"Neither do I," he shook his head despondently, "and if Bri keeps up with this trend of not listening to anyone who's trying to help her…I'm afraid it's going to get worse than it's been."

She glanced at her watch and noticed that there were few in the halls. She was two minutes late and the clock was ticking. "Shoot, Jaime. I've gotta go. Talk to you this afternoon." 

By the time she had run to the classroom she was out of breath and when she slipped in to the lecture, everyone noticed, especially Mr. Olson, who only gave her a disappointed look and told her. "Val, you're not starting a good trend." 

"I'm sorry, I had an emergency I had to take care of." 

He gave her a long look, for he knew that sometimes they got calls during school, but today was a day he knew they were not on call. 

"Let's not make this something normal, okay?" 

Val nodded and slumped down in the chair and rubbed her temples. Life was _not_ going well at that moment.

Jaime, who had a free period while Val had chemistry, turned around to face an angered Caitie. "I saw that, Jaime Waite! I saw it all!" Her voice was raised but low, so that no one would hear, and she waved her arms expressively as she spoke.

"What? What did I do? I walked Val to her class! That's all!" He desperately tried to say something that didn't sound stupid, but Caitie's anger was so heated that she was blind to any excuses. 

"No, that's not all you did! You told her, didn't you? About Bri?" She didn't even wait for an answer, which she knew was going to be just a stutter. She forgot about how cute Jaime looked and how much she desired him every moment of everyday. He'd betrayed her. He'd told, and that was all she saw in him just then. "You promised you wouldn't! You promised, and you lied…you told Val!" 

"I did, but…I…" 

"And you talked to her about me!"

"But Caitie, I…" 

"No! Don't even! I don't want to talk to you…ever again!" 

Five minutes later, Caitie stormed into the girls' bathroom, and Jaime into the boys' on the other side of the building, which was basically backed up with the girls' side. They both sighed and leaned against the wall with a huff. 

_What have I done?_ Jaime thought, feeling as though he were the worst person in the world.

_What have I done?_ Caitie thought, feeling as though she had just killed all chances of a relationship and broken her heart into a million pieces. And it was all her fault. 

End of Part 2! I'll get out part 3 sometime soon…hope you enjoyed this! (and remember, it always has to get worse to get better)


	3. Default Chapter Title

# Open Arms—Part 3…

Well, this is the next part (and don't worry, not the last) J and I've made it a long, like the last one, for those who are asking for more. All disclaimers apply here…I still don't own the characters L

"You will have a quiz tomorrow on the reading pages 450 to 454 on compounds. Come prepared." Mr. Olson warned as he wrote down the page numbers on the white board at the front of the classroom. 

Val sighed and copied them down to her assignment book. That night, she was going to study, and study hard. She was determined to ace this quiz if it killed her—she _had_ to. If her grade got any worse…well, Jaime had been right. It couldn't get much worse than it was, her parents _might_ just rethink about letting her have so much freedom with her EMT job. They'd probably bear down on her and make her study more and spend less time with the squad; she certainly hoped they wouldn't. She loved her job more than anything else in the world…well…besides Tyler.

The class filed out and she met Tyler outside in the hallway to go to Sociology together. 

"Hey, what's wrong? You look like someone just died." He said with a small smile and moved closer to her as they stepped together. 

Val sighed again and smiled back shortly. "Chemistry quiz tomorrow. I just know I'm going to fail." 

"Well, then, don't." He said simply. 

"What do you mean?" She gave him a questioning look that made him grin.

"I'll help you study. Remember, I take the same class." 

"Yeah, but Mrs. Kelly is nice. She doesn't…oh, you know…" 

"That shouldn't matter." He told her frankly, and Val knew he was right. It was her own knowledge of the subject that wasn't up to par. 

"Yeah…okay. At the station tonight—study date?" 

"Is all we have to do study?" 

She giggled, actually giggled, sounding quite stupid, and gave him a quick kiss. "Not if you don't want." 

Caitie felt sick to her stomach for the rest of the afternoon. For once, nothing in her life was going the right way. Nothing. She was failing almost every class, not that she cared (_she_ knew she was smart, she didn't need grades to tell her that), she'd told Jaime she never wanted to speak to him, and the situation with Brianne was not going much better. She didn't know what she would do if…just maybe…they lost her. She would blame herself for years. 

That afternoon, she hung around the school for a little while and then went to the station. Caitie figured she'd worked up enough strength to go tell Jaime she was sorry by four thirty, when the dusk ridden day was already cold. She walked slowly along the sidewalk, rehearsing what she was going to say, making it sound as though she were more pitiful than she was, just to maybe get Jaime feeling sorry for her. 

_No. She told herself_. That's not going to work. _He's going to think I'm really stupid_. 

For some reason, she didn't find the right words anywhere inside of her, and by the time she had reached the front doors of the station, she had less ideas than an author with writer's block. A few years later she would look back on this moment and probably pay to have seen her expression as she walked in. Brooke, not wanted to mess with her, just pointed to the storeroom.

Caitie didn't say thank you—it wasn't worth it. She had to see Jaime. Right then.

"Jaime?" She asked quietly, approaching him in the store closet. When he turned, he gave her an angered look and kept on working.

"What do you want?" This was a curt statement. He didn't look at her, he didn't even avert his attention from the boxes. 

"Look, if it's this hard, I don't need to be here. I just thought you might care. I guess I was wrong." 

"_I_ don't care? Yesterday I talked to Val because it was the right thing to do. I thought she might have some ideas…I was only trying to help." His words stung like a thousand knives.

"You don't understand." But before she could continue again, Jaime started another sentence, this time in a higher and much harsher voice.

"No, Caitie. I _do_ understand. You always have to have things your own way. Bri's in trouble and you wanted to keep that a secret…_why_…I'm not sure. I was not the one who was wrong." He pointed out, his face flushed, and turned back to his work as she responded.

"Well, you know what? I don't care. I really don't." She managed this while not yelling. "I wanted to help her, too, but I guess you're…oh, never mind. I'm not going to waste the breath." Caitie spun on her heel and stormed out, thinking to herself. _You really messed up that one, Caitie. Worse than the last time_.

Jaime sighed and fell against the wall in anger—at himself. His shoulder pressed against the blue barrier, he shut his eyes, preventing tears of frustration and slammed the wall with the flat side of his fist as hard as her could, pain shooting through his arm. The strike shook his bones, but not as bad as Caitie's last words had struck his heart. 

_You did it again, Waite. Messed it up for good_.

"Okay. Baking soda…this one's easy." Tyler said, sitting on the couch with the chemistry book sprawled out on the other cushion, forcing him to twist his torso to look at it.

Val looked apprehensively at the clock, that's hands showed 7:23 PM. She paced in front of Tyler and pressed her hands together in front of her chest. "Sodium Bicarbonate." She said, hoping it was right.

"Yes! Now the formula." He smiled, happy that she had gotten the answer on the first try. Val wasn't stupid, she just overbooked sometimes. 

She wrinkled her face and frowned. "I have no idea." 

"Come on, Val…you have these down pat…you must have for the EMT test. How come you can't do it now?" 

She sighed and plopped down on the couch as Tyler took the book and laid it over his lap. She peered over his shoulder to get a peek at the answers but he shut the book over his thumb. "You _know_ this."

"Okay, okay…skip this one. Give me the next one." 

"All right, fine. Another easy one. Methane." 

Val thought for a second, but the answer didn't come to her—at all. And this one was supposed to be easy. "Oh, I don't know. I hate this! I can't think of any of them!" 

Tyler sighed. "It's CH4…okay. Butane." 

"I seriously don't know—any of them."

"C4 H10." 

"All right. Let's scrap this for now and work on something else." She said, preparing to get up again, but Tyler stopped her.

"No. If you want to be a doctor, you're going to learn this." 

"What does chemistry have to do with this?" 

"You said yourself half the stuff is in meds we use…well some of it's also in our bodies. You must know those…" 

She nodded. "Worth a try." 

"All right. Glucose." 

"Easy. C6H12O6. And so are fructose and galactose. You're right. I know those ones…I practically aced bio, but it's the stuff that we don't use that kills me. Like acetic acid is CH3COOH…and calcium carbonate is CaCO3…" She stopped when she noticed that Tyler was laughing, and then she realized what she had been doing. "Oh, my gosh! I _know_ this stuff!" 

"What did I tell you?" 

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're always perfect." Val rolled her eyes and leaned her head on Tyler's armquickly as if hugging him. "But we all knew that, it's nothing new."

He laughed and gave her head a kiss, closed the book. "Octane." 

"C8H18." She lifted her head. "I don't get it…I know it now, but how come less than 5 minutes ago, I couldn't even think of something like table salt?" 

"Well, I think when you opened your mind to the ones you knew, the others came easily." 

"Not that that makes any sense." She smiled as he closed the book. 

"I can't believe it. This time it's worse." Val exclaimed as she walked into the station. Tyler had gotten there much earlier since she had stayed late to speak to Mr. Olson. Brooke and he both looked up from their work, Brooke on the laptop and Tyler on the table with papers. 

"Why, what do you mean?" He asked, and turned to face her in his seat.

"I got a **D**." She exclaimed. "A **_D_**. I've only gotten something that low _once_. Once!"

"Whoa, chill out. In chem.?" 

She nodded and sat down next to him, throwing the test down on the counter and burying her face in her arms over the table. "Yeah."

"But I thought you knew this stuff." He looked through the test, which was sparsely written on. 

"I do. That's the thing…I _do_! I guess my life is just destined to be over." Before he had a chance to say anything, she stood up, even though it was less than a minute after she had sat down, and walked out of the room muttering something.

Tyler started to go after her, but Brooke, who had seen the whole thing, told him. "Don't bother. She's got a lot on her mind." 

He stopped and turned back to the younger girl. "Like what?" 

Brooke, realizing what she had just said and shook her head. "Oh, I don't know—she's always busy…must just not be balancing her schedule right." 

Tyler just looked at her for a second and then said. "Brooke. I know it's something else. Tell me."

Val's sister broke down—she knew she was beat. "I wasn't supposed to hear it in the first place—Val will kill me if I tell you. Well, both Caitie and Val will kill me."

"Not if I do first." He told her, not serious yet not joking, and moved closer so that he was staring at her from behind the screen of the laptop.

"Okay, okay. It's Brianne. She's doing drugs—I don't know who knows but I heard them talking on accident and…" 

"Thanks, Brooke." He said before she finished and went to find Val. 

But just as soon as he had made his way into hallway, the alarm sounded and they all had to get to work.

End of part 3 J The next part might be the last one, depends on how much I have to say…but there will probably end up being 5 parts. 


	4. Default Chapter Title

Open Arms—part 4:

This is the next part…it's kinda short, but very important. The next part will be the last. 

When Hank was dictating the address of the call to Val, Tyler, and Jaime in the back of the ambulance, Jaime's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it. "Wait, number 137?" He called.

"Right." Hank returned.

His face turned white as a sheet, and Val, worried, questioned.

"What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost." She proclaimed.

He gripped the seat with all his strength and then took a deep breath and let his grasp go weak. He watched out the front window as they made a turn and the cars peeled away from their vehicle like the skin from a banana. No. This couldn't be happening. This didn't happen to him, this didn't happen, period. "It's Brianne. That's Brianne's house." 

Alex gave them the rest of the shift off to stay with Brianne at the hospital. He had others who could do the same things they could, and sometimes, just sometimes, he could feel some compassion.

Val sat on the light blue couch in the waiting room next to Tyler. Her feet rested straight in front of her on the cheap, grained carpet and occasionally she stretched them to tap the low, wooden coffee table in front of her, which held old sugar and bad drinks. Tyler's hand rubbed hers and held it tight clasp, a warm, caring tight clasp. She moved her fingers along his, in turn, and sighed, a weight resting on her shoulders. She had known Brianne as long as Caitie had known her, and although she never was a very good friend of hers, just the though that she wasn't doing well laid over her like a dark cloud.

"Are you all right?" He asked seriously, propping his other arm on the pillow at the end of the couch. 

She managed a very weak smile. "Do I look all right?" 

He returned the faded smirk and nodded understandingly, not probing her anymore, but she continued. "I just can't believe she did this…I've known her and Caitie for the longest time…I just don't believe it." 

"And you don't know why she would have done this." He said and she gently lifted her head as if in a nod. "I know." 

Jaime, on the couch across from her, lowered his chin to look at the ground just as Tyler uttered those words. Val gave him a sympathetic look but he just shook his head and ignored it. At times, he would turn and sit back against the cushion behind him, but before he had really stayed in that position, he jolted forward again and ran his hands over his legs, sighing. 

After a few more moments of a resounding silence, Val sat up, thinking that Jaime needed some time alone. She wanted to be alone with Tyler, as well. "Would you come with me to get something to eat?" She inquired in a whisper, "Please?"

He nodded, knowing exactly what she was thinking, and got up with her to wander down the hallway. 

Val kept her head low and watched her feet move along the floor like shadows. The darkness outside the window caught the corner of her eye and it was so dreary that she almost felt it surround her. 

Tyler broke the silence. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked quietly.

They stopped in the hallway and she nodded. "I think so. I was just thinking…about the past few days." 

The two of them continued down the corridor watching others scurry by. Val wondered for a moment how their lives were going—they must have been better than hers. But, hurriedly, she took the thought back. Maybe someone else was losing her best friend, or maybe the man on the other side of the hallway had been slowly suffering the loss of his wife…or the two kids crying their mother or father…comparatively she wasn't all that bad off. She still had great friends, a guy who loved her, and her father had survived a heart attack. She was lucky. The thought hit her like a thousand knives. 

"You know." She started as Tyler stuffed three quarters in the candy machine and out fell a Snickers bar. "I've been pretty stupid lately." 

"How so?" He shoved in another three quarters and got a Snickers bar for her. 

"I guess…" The words escaped her momentarily. "That I've been so caught up in the small stuff that I forgot what was really important to me. I mean, I thought I was going to die because I got a **C-**."

"Well, it seems like those things are really important until life catches up with us." They reached the waiting room without either of them saying anything more, Val contemplating what Tyler had said.

Jaime still sat sprawled on the couch, a dead look on his face. They sat down without a word to him and before even a few minutes had passed, Val spotted Caitie walking slowly into the waiting room. She completely ignored Jaime and went to sit on the chair next to Val, Jaime turning his face away, as well. Val gave a sideways glance to Tyler, who just shrugged.

Tears had formed in Caitie's eyes, running the makeup she was wearing, as she uttered. "I tried to stop her. I tried, but she just wouldn't listen." 

Val reached over and hugged her best friend tightly. "You did what you could." 

Jaime, apparently troubled by Caitie's presence stood up and muttered something inaudible, for he had seen the doctor walking towards them long before the others. He met the man as Val and Caitie parted and exchanged a few words. While he was talking, his face fell farther than it had when he had found out the news in the ambulance. He nodded slightly and turned back to his friends, shaking his head.

"She didn't make it." Jaime whispered. He saw Caitie start to stand up but she held herself back, the water rolling down her cheeks now in a real flow. "She passed away a few minutes ago." 

This time, Caitie rose without a word, thought, or gesture and ran out of the waiting room and down the hallway, out the door into the night's darkness, and Jaime couldn't help but follow her, whatever the consequences might end up being. 


	5. Default Chapter Title

# Open Arms part 5

The last part! Yay! All the usual disclaimers apply as I still don't own the characters…sigh…just read it, okay? In my opinion it's the best part =)

The night was clear and the stars seemed to shine brighter than usual. The air was still, but there was a bite to it that made Caitie shiver. She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed them in hopes of getting warmer and sat on the concrete bench by the doorway of the hospital. Despite the buzz of activity in the building, it was quiet outside until the door whisked open. She heard the familiar footsteps of Jaime, although that night she swore they fell much heavier than they did every day. 

"I'm sorry." He whispered hoarsely. 

She kept her back to him and looked up at the sky, her chin resting hard on her hands, and didn't say anything. She heard Jaime sigh lightly and the boom of his footsteps got louder as he came and sat down on the frigid concrete next to her. She felt the heat of his body next to her and her first impulse was to turn around and fall into his arms and sob. But she just stayed in the same position.

Seeing that Caitie was looking up at the stars, Jaime slowly lifted his head and admired the expanse of universe that guarded them. "Do you believe in heaven?" 

Surprised at the question, she didn't answer with words, but shrugged, then turned to him for the first time that day. Her eyes were sore and red, still wet from crying for the last hour—she'd only worked up the courage to come to the hospital long after she had found out about Brianne. It was an unbearable weight on her that she had tried desperately to shrug off but she couldn't for the life of her. "I don't know. I guess." Caitie sniffed. 

Jaime nodded and put his hand lightly on her arm, the heat of his touch making her shiver. "Cold?"

She nodded and leaned back, turning her body so that she sat next to him as opposed to in front of him.

"Here." He took off his heavy, black EMT jacket and handed it to her. Gratefully, she draped it over her shoulders.

"Thanks." Her voice was airy and light, although heavy with sadness at the same time. Caitie turned her head to look at him, not even trying to stop the tears from dripping down her cheeks and onto her black skirt. "It's not fair. You know, it's just not fair." 

Jaime looked at the ground for a second and shifted his feet, gazed at the dark recesses of the bushes for another moment and then responded to her words. "I know. But you know what else?" 

"What?" She wiped away some of the water on her face but it only returned the next second with more tears. 

"We did all we could and she still didn't do anything to stop." 

"And what does that have to do with anything, Jaime Waite?" She cried, louder than she had expected, and looked up at the sky again. 

"I was always taught that things happen for a reason—_everything_ happens for a reason. Maybe it was meant to be…I mean, we tried as hard as we could and it never got better." 

Caitie was angered at this statement. How could he say that? How could he say that Brianne was meant to die when she was sixteen? It wasn't fair. She turned farther away from him, gazing at a bright star that seemed to stand out.

He didn't appear fazed by her ignoring him. "Another thing I was taught was that death happens to bring you closer to someone else." 

She turned back to him, again surprised by what he had said. His words aroused a memory inside of her—of before they had started fighting the other day when she had seen him and wanted him more than anything else in the world, to hold forever, to love, and to be loved back. "How so?" She shifted her position closer to him and faced him.

"Well, if this hadn't happened we wouldn't be sitting here, now—if she hadn't even started drugs, we never would have realized…" He stopped, and let the sounds of the night envelop them.

Caitie stared at his eyes and became absorbed in the orbs that glowed with a passion so fierce they seemed to pull her closer to him. He opened his arm and she leaned on him and watched the sky again. Her eyes became drawn to that one star again and again. 

"You would never have realized that there was someone down here who loved you very much and always has open arms for you to fall into." He rubbed her arm with his and when she looked up at him, his lips met hers in a delicate kiss that seethed with fire but was as gentle as the petals of a flower against her skin. 

When their lips parted, she asked. "Then why was her life not spared? Why did her life have to end?" 

Jaime pondered the question for a moment. "There are some people that are placed on this earth to make us feel happy, sad, or whatever, but they're here. Like Val and Tyler and Hank…and even Brooke…and they all live their lives and at least enjoy one part of it. And we were privileged to be a part of their lives, however short or long they are…and…am I making any sense?" 

Her mouth pulled to a wry smile. "No, but go on." 

"What I mean is, we all live our lives and affect other people's lives in turn, it's just that some of us don't live quite as long as others. And when they leave us, they go on to do better things for others." 

Caitie peered up at the star she'd been looking at, but in a split second, it shot out of its position in the sky and blazed across the sky until it disappeared. It must have taken less than a second or two, at the most, but to Caitie it seemed like hours. "You know. I think you're right. However warped the idea is, you're definitely right."

The end! Hope you liked it…it was my first J/C fic and I had fun with it, although I will probably be returning to mostly V/T fics. J


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